Why Priests Don’t Blow the Whistle

Fr. Edwin Palka on the culture of secrecy and blackmail among gay bishops

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By Fr. Edwin Palka

One question that was asked after last week's homily was, "Why don't 'good' priests and 'good' bishops blow the whistle on the abusive priests and bishops?"

Many people still don't (I believe most priests still don't) understand just how evil the active homosexual or homosexual activist (AH/HA from here on out) priests and bishops are. Not understanding the extent of their depravity and wrongly thinking they're simply "normal" men who just struggle with their sexual desires and sometimes might fail to remain chaste, but are really, truly repentant when it happens and strive to "confess my sins, do penance and amend my life, amen," they cannot possibly grasp the hellish depths to which the AH/HA clergy will go to persecute, lambaste, punish, humiliate and blackmail anyone who stands in their way or threatens their way of life.

They cannot possibly grasp the hellish depths to which the AH/HA clergy will go to persecute, lambaste, punish, humiliate and blackmail anyone who stands in their way or threatens their way of life.

Let me be clear: The AH/HA priests and bishops treat their sexual mortal sin as if it is a "good" — and a God-given good at that (if they even believe in God, something of which I am very doubtful, at least in the Catholic understanding of Who God is). Nay, more than a good, they are convinced that it is the good. They will go to any, I repeat, any length to force others to engage in it, to accept it or to, at the very least, ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist or that it's not harmful enough to mention or try to eradicate.

They do not struggle with their disordered sexual desires as so many others do, but rather revel in them. With that as my premise, let me explain why few "good" priests and bishops will openly challenge their brother priests and bishops when it comes to this particular sin. Next week, perhaps, I will take it a step further and write about why even priests who have left active ministry (mostly to get married) cannot and will not come forward with what they know about what quite often drove them out of ministry in the first place.

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

As part of the application process to be accepted as a seminarian, and throughout his entire formation process, a man is, and rightly so, asked to reveal an extensive amount of very personal information, including such things as his history of chastity or sexual activity, criminal activity (even if he was never caught or convicted), and his worst fears about where he might fail in living out his vows or promises (prayer, poverty, chastity and obedience).

His file grows thicker the longer he remains in the seminary, and it continues to grow after ordination, and includes self-revealed and other-revealed (from formation directors, vocation directors, letters from parishioners, etc.) information regarding his struggles, mental issues, physical problems and moral failings before, during and after formation — any perceived "hostility toward women" or "rigidity" or "uber-Catholicism" or "hard preaching" and many more such things.

That file never goes away, even when a man leaves "the system," whether before or after ordination. This file is always meant to help him so that, by working with his spiritual director, he can improve in every aspect of his life so he can overcome fears and failings, and in order that he has a benchmark by which to gauge his improvements in holiness and competence. It's also meant to help his bishop and any of his future bishops understand the priest, to figure out where to place him on assignment or which assignment to keep him away from for his own good.

But while a good seminary rector or bishop uses this intimate information wisely and well for the salvation of the soul of the man and those under his care, an AH/HA bishop uses it for evil purposes. How so? Let me give you a couple of completely made-up examples.

They do not struggle with their disordered sexual desires as so many others do, but rather revel in them.

Suppose a priest's file reveals that, as a teen, he was sexually abused by an adult male. As a result of this formative abuse, he struggled with homosexual desires as an adolescent and into his early adulthood but always remained chaste. Once ordained as a priest, he spoke out fervently against the acceptance and promotion and legalization of homosexual activity and other sexual sins.

His AH/HA bishop, knowing his past, makes him the Boy Scout chaplain, where he will be working closely with the bishop's handpicked and openly active homosexual lay diocesan Scout leaders, hoping and even encouraging him (vicariously, through his minions) to finally fall to his boyhood, abuse-induced homosexual desires and sexually abuse one or more of the Scouts. While a continual perpetuation of this sin is most greatly desired by the AH/HA bishop, even one "close call" is enough for a lifetime of blackmail.

The AH/HA bishop will do the same with a formerly active heterosexual priest (before his conversion to Catholicism, let us say) who bucks the Lavender Mafia, though he would instead be assigned as chaplain of the girls' high school or university for the same purposes, and "seducers" would be sent to tempt him.

Think this is far-fetched? Don't be fooled.

"So?" you might be thinking, "What could the AH/HA bishop do with even a file full of blackmail information?" I will explain more about that next week, and you will see why even the ex-priests are not safe from such evil.

By Fr. Edwin Palka is a priest in the diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida.

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